Independent Safety Review

'The Advantica Report'

In late 2005, the Minster for the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, appointed Advantica Ltd., (a UK engineering consultancy firm) to carry out a comprehensive independent review of the Corrib onshore pipeline. Some of their key conclusions and recommendations were:

“Proper consideration was given to safety issues in the selection process for the preferred design option and the locations of the landfall, pipeline route and terminal”.

“Limiting the pressure in the onshore section to pressures no greater than 144 bar is believed to be both practical and an effective measure to reduce risk (and will only be required in the early years of the life of the pipeline because the pressure in the gas wells will decline naturally as gas is extracted)".

This report concluded that:

“Provided that it can be demonstrated that the pressure in the onshore pipeline will be limited effectively, and that the recommendations made elsewhere in this report are followed, we believe that there will be a substantial safety margin in the pipeline design, and the pipeline design and proposed route should be accepted as meeting or exceeding international standards in terms of the acceptability of risk and international best practice for high pressure pipelines".

The recommendations of the Advantica Report have all been accepted by SEPIL and work is now in progress towards implementing these.